1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a wire bale binding machine that utilizes a three section return track for guiding wire around a bale of bulk fibrous material. Fibrous materials include cotton and nylon.
2. Related Art
Fibrous bulk materials include cotton and nylon. Fibrous bulk materials are commonly formed into bales by compression and binding. There is a continuing need in the art to improve this bale binding process by improving efficiency, reliability and accuracy. There are various constraints on improvements to the bale binding process including: (1) the nature of the fibrous material; (2) the compressive force or loading; and (3) the loading of the fibrous material into a bale compression box; (3) wrapping baling wire around the bale.
Baling wire or baling strap performance requirements vary depending on the bulk material at issue. Such requirements range from general operational parameters to industry to standard specifications. The Cotton Council has a baling constraint wherein the length of the wire (or strap) around the bale must fall within a particular range and the tension that the wire (or strap) must withstand has a particular range.
U.S. Wire Tie, a company based in Carthage, Mo., has an existing system, the 340 Series, for baling bulk materials. This system uses a hydraulic twist knot wire tying system to bind bales. In such systems, 8 gauge wire is utilized as the baling wire. However, hydraulic systems are slowly becoming less desirable because any leak of hydraulic fluid onto the bulk material ruins the material and requires that the baling equipment be cleaned prior to restarting the baling operation. To avoid the ruination of bulk material and prevent the loss of operational time and avoid the accompanying cleaning costs, this, there is a need in the art to provide a power source for a baling machine that does not use hydraulic fluid.
As the inventors have explored the feasibility of electric systems, it has been discovered that such systems require electrically-powered, knot-tying heads that are substantially larger than hydraulic knot-tying heads. This larger dimension, however, results in an inability to feed the wire around the bale with enough clearance from the bale to permit tying and still fall within the required length and strength specifications of the Cotton Council.
Design, construction and operation of a bale forming and binding apparatus is also complicated by the often conflicting requirements of providing a means to precisely apply a binding to the bale simultaneous with the compression process. Thus, an immovable strapping guide can improve the accuracy and efficiency of the application of the strapping at the potential cost of complicating bale forming and output. A separable strapping guide can avoid these costs but can present impediments to the precise application of the strapping. Additional requirements to further coordinate cotton input, strapping feed and bound bale output present substantial impediments to the operational speed and accuracy of the bale binding system.
Operational speed and accuracy is also dependent upon the speed of the application of baling wire to a bale and the release of a bale. In manually-assisted systems, two workers assume positions on each side of a bale. As the compression box is filled with fibrous material and compressed, the compression is held until the workers can slide six wire ties under the bale. Once the ties are in place, the machine bends each tie around the bale such that the tie connectors on each end of each tie connect. Then, the compressive force on the bale is released and the bale expands in volume until limited by the baling ties.
Automated systems include the use of plastic straps which are threaded around a bale, with the ends being welded together.
There is a need in the art to provide an automated, non-hydraulic, non-plastic baling machine that provides operational speed and reliability.